What’s For Dinner, Anna Wintour?
Remembrance of Met Gala Dinners Past, with Recipes. Plus: The Garden of Time — A dystopian tale is the theme for this year’s Red Carpet.
1000 Fifth Avenue, New York City, will be fashion’s center of gravity on Monday night.
It’s the first Monday in May, “Met Gala Monday” and Anna Wintour, Editor-in-Chief of Vogue, is once again in charge of what is arguably the social calendar’s event of the year — the high-wattage fundraiser for The Metropolitan Museum of Art’s Costume Institute.
What I really want to know is what everybody will be eating once they’ve ascended the red-carpeted steps of The Met.
The menu, however, will remain a secret till Monday. But we know it will be good. Just ask Jack Harlow.
“The food, the food is so good!”
In 2022, a fun and sweetly awkward exchange on the red carpet between YouTuber, entrepreneur and coffee enthusiast Emma Chamberlain and rapper and songwriter Jack Harlow went viral. Ms. Chamberlain’s reaction at the end of the interview is priceless and so is Mr. Harlow’s enthusiastic and charmingly down-to-earth answer to her question:
Emma: What do you, like, get the MOST excited about when the Met comes around?
Jack: The food, the food is so good!
The menu that night was created by chefs Lauren Von der Pool, Melissa King, Amirah Kassem and Marcus Samuelsson.
Each simultaneously honored their own style and the theme of “In America: An Anthology of Fashion” when coming up with their culinary creations.
— Elise Taylor for Vogue, May, 2022
The recipes for all of the dishes served, including Chef Kassem’s Chocolate Cake and Mousse Cup (pictured below) can be found here: Met Gala Dinner 2022.
The Metropolitan Museum of Art holds a special place in my heart. My brother Michael is a painter (https://mvarley.com) and he spent many years guarding The Met’s treasures. We’d meet every week for tea in the cafeteria and then I’d wander around the galleries. These are happy memories of time with my brother and of my life back in New York.
The Garden of Time
I’m completely intrigued by The Met’s choice of Red Carpet theme this year —J.G. Ballard’s 1962 dystopian short story, The Garden of Time — and apparently so is the BBC’s Rosalind Jana.
In a sort of “What were they thinking?” piece, Ms. Jana explores the choice of theme. You can read her article: HERE.
The plot? In a garden of crystal time flowers, a Count and Countess, surrounded by luxury and beauty of every kind must pluck one flower each day to keep an approaching mob at bay. Once picked, the time flowers slightly turn back the clock and keep them safe for the moment. But, inevitably, they arrive at the last flower. Only a single rose remains in the hand of the Countess.
It will be fascinating to see how this theme is interpreted not only on the red carpet, but by the chefs who are charged with preparing the gala dinner.
Literary Hub is running Ballard’s short story, along with some remarks about both the theme and the exhibit at the gala “Sleeping Beauties: Reawakening Fashion”. According to Vogue, the exhibit features “clothing so fragile it can never be worn again.” Here is the link to the short story, The Garden of Time: LitHub. I’ll be curious to hear what you think.
Remembrance of Madeleines Past
Time, memory, luxury, decay, beauty, life, death — what would I make if I was given The Garden of Time as a theme-to-cook-by?
I’m afraid I defaulted to the cliché of the Proustian madeleine, but I think I redeemed myself with the addition of lavender to the mix — lavender honey to be exact.
Since we’re talking life and death here, over 2,500 years ago Egyptians used lavender oil in preparing shrouds — literally, laid out in lavender. But it was the Romans who got all ‘self-care’ with it and began using lavender to scent their baths — the Latin word ‘lavare’ meaning ‘to wash’.
Lavender buds may be used in cooking and baking, but please do yourself a favor and use them sparingly.
You should look for and use culinary grade lavender, lest the guests you are serving feel they’ve just had their mouths washed out with soap.
Back to the madeleines — I love this recipe and the use of lavender honey imparts a mildly sweet and floral flavor. You can find the recipe from Taste of France: HERE.
I decided it was the perfect time to try something from the aforementioned Emma Chamberlain’s coffee line and I liked it a lot. I bought the “Social Dog Blend” and first tried it hot, no sugar or milk and it was really nice with the madeleines.
The following day I whirred up some lavender sugar: 2 cups white sugar with 1 tablespoon dried culinary grade lavender. Pulse it well in a Cuisinart, you don’t want chunks of lavender buds left in there.
I made iced coffee, again using Ms. Chamberlain’s brand, and added milk and a teaspoon of the lavender sugar. It gave the coffee a nice smoothness with the tiniest floral hint. A friend told me today that Starbuck’s is doing a lavender coffee, so I’m feeling very smug that I came to this on my own.
Fashion: For the Fun of It
I love fashion and I love when people have fun with it and nobody appears to be having more fun than Angelica Hicks.
The author of the illustrated book “Tongue in Chic”, Ms. Hicks does fashion performance art on Instagram and TikTok by recreating red carpet looks from items found around the house. There is ALWAYS an element of food involved in achieving the looks — which she snacks on while creating.
In this particular post, she’s recreated Marilyn Monroe’s famous gown — the one Marilyn wore at JFK’s Birthday bash at Madison Square Garden in May of 1962. The dress is back at “Ripley’s Believe It or Not Museum” after controversially being on loan to Kim Kardashian for the 2022 Met Gala.
Ms. Hicks’ videos are smart and sassy and laugh-out-loud funny, so take a peek —I think you’ll get a kick out of them.
Just a reminder that monthly and yearly subscriptions to Time Travel Kitchen are available, so I hope you’ll join the growing list of paid subscribers who help keep this Time Machine spinning.
The Metropolitan Museum of Art is the largest museum in North America with two million objects in the collection. It’s magnificent.
See you on the Red Carpet! (in my pajamas, at home). ✨
Jolene
Love the idea of adding lavender to sugar for making iced coffee. I have made shortbread with lavender from a local farm where they also warned me to use it sparingly. Thanks for the lovely post!
Jolene, Jolene! This is post is absolutely delicious. I forgive you for making me hungry again, not because you've linked to Emma and Jack's viral video (which I loved), but because you led me to J.G. Ballard's short story, which I'd never read before. Great photos and recipes here too. Thanks so much for this.